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BRIEF—GSK completes sale of nutrition brands for £3.4 billion

GlaxoSmithKline has completed divestment of its Horlicks and other Consumer Healthcare nutrition products…



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Mediolanum buys French I-O company

Privately-held Italian pharma group Mediolanum Farmaceutici has acquired the French immuno-oncology specialist…



  • Biotechnology/Companies
  • mergers and acquisitions/Elsalys Biotech/France/Immuno-oncology/Italy/Leukotac/Mediolanum/Oncology

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Recordati 1st-qtr revenues rise 12% as income leaps more than 20%

Italian drugmaker Recordati has reported consolidated revenues for the first quarter of 2020 are 429.2…



  • Financial/Italy/Pharmaceutical/Recordati/Signifor

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BRIEF—AbbVie finally completes acquisition of Allergan

US pharma major AbbVie has finally completed its $63 billion acquisition of Ireland-incorporated Allergan,…



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  • mergers and acquisitions/Ireland/Legal/Pharmaceutical/USA

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Remdesivir, check. Now, analysts are looking ahead to 'several' COVID-19 drugs to come

Gilead made waves on Friday with its emergency FDA approval for remdesivir quickly on the heels of a controlled trial data release. But while it’s an important first step, other COVID-19 medicines will likely be coming down the line, analysts wrote.




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Ousted BARDA director pushed back on chloroquine claims and faced whistleblower retaliation, complaint says

After his surprise removal from HHS’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority—a key agency partnered with pharma companies on COVID-19 drugs, vaccines and diagnostics—former Director Rick Bright is alleging whistleblower retaliation by HHS leadership. 




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FDA commissioner in self-quarantine after exposure to person with COVID-19

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn is in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday.




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New York governor says 5-year old died from rare COVID-related complications

A 5-year old boy has died in New York from a rare inflammatory syndrome believed to be linked to the novel coronavirus, highlighting a potential new risk for children in the pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday.




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Portugal's low-income households struggle to survive pandemic

One in four Portuguese with a monthly household income of 650 euros ($705) or less have lost all their income because of the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, a study by the National School of Public Health showed on Saturday.




com

Best of the Best Biotech Book Recommendations

As you may know, I maintain an extensive list of book recommendations for the biotech enthusiast on a "Amazon Influencer" page. After the latest update there are well over 100 titles! I recently analyzed the data to come up with the most popular titles among my followers (perhaps the full list is a bit intimidating):​Genentech: The Birth of BiotechThe Biotech Trader HandbookThe Pharmagellan Guide to Biotech Forecasting & ValuationValuation in Life Sciences: A Practical GuideThe Antidot [...]




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Puerto Rico Senator Jorge De Castro Font Pleads Guilty to Honest Services Wire Fraud and Conspiracy to Commit Extortion

Jorge De Castro Font, 45, a former senator in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, pleaded guilty today to 20 counts of honest services wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit extortion.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Canadian Company to Pay U.S. More Than $1 Million Related to Sale of Defective Bullet-proof Vests

Barrday Inc. and two related companies have agreed to pay the United States more than $1 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act in connection with their role in the weaving of Zylon fabric used in the manufacture and sale of defective Zylon bullet-proof vests. Barrday, headquartered in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, is a weaver of ballistic fabrics and designs and produces specialty industrial textiles.



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Former Oak Ridge Complex Employee Pleads Guilty to Unlawful Disclosure of Restricted Atomic Energy Data

Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, a resident of Harriman, Tenn., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, to count one of an indictment charging him with unlawful disclosure of Restricted Data under the Atomic Energy Act, in violation of 42 U.S.C., Section 2274(b).



  • OPA Press Releases

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Owner of Pharmaceutical Wholesale Company Pleads Guilty to Medicare Fraud

The owner and operator of HME Solutions Inc., dba Lifecare Medical (Lifecare Medical), a licensed pharmaceutical wholesale company in Miami, pleaded guilty today to defrauding the Medicare program in connection with a $5.3 million HIV-infusion fraud scheme.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Former Lobbyist Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Honest Services Fraud

A former lobbyist pleaded guilty today to conspiring with others to commit honest services fraud. Todd A. Boulanger, 37, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts in the District of Columbia. According to court documents, Boulanger worked as a lobbyist from 1999 through 2004 with Jack Abramoff and others.



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Former Finance Director of California Valve Company Pleads Guilty to Bribing Foreign Government Officials

The former finance director of an Orange County, Calif.-based valve company pleaded guilty today in connection with his role in a conspiracy to pay approximately $628,000 in bribes to numerous foreign government officials.



  • OPA Press Releases

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California Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Community Correctional Facility in Connection with Scheme to Defraud First International Bank and Export-Import Bank

Carlos Serrano, 64, of Glendale, Calif., was sentenced to 18 months in a community correctional facility in connection with a $1.3 million scheme to defraud the First International Bank of Connecticut (FIB) and the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). In addition to his prison sentence, Serrano was placed on five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution of $924,569 to the Ex-Im Bank.



  • OPA Press Releases

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District of Columbia Seafood Company, Owner and Employee Plead Guilty to Federal Trafficking Charges

A fish wholesaler, its owner and an employee have all pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for the illegal purchase and sale of striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River from 2003 through 2007.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Shipping Company, Chief Engineer and Second Engineer Indicted for Covering up Pollution

A federal grand jury in Newark, N.J., has returned an eight-count indictment charging a Liberian company that manages an oceangoing bulk carrier vessel, M/V Myron N, along with the ship’s chief engineer and second engineer for covering up discharges of oil-contaminated waste at sea.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Five Maryland Commercial Fishermen Plead Guilty to Illegally Overfishing Striped Bass

Five St. Mary’s County, Md., commercial fisherman pleaded guilty today to illegally overfishing striped bass also known as rockfish.



  • OPA Press Releases

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United States Files Complaint Against Forest Laboratories for Allegedly Violating the False Claims Act

A complaint was unsealed today in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against a New York pharmaceutical company for alleged False Claims Act violations arising from the company’s marketing the drugs Celexa and Lexapro for unapproved pediatric use and for paying kickbacks to induce physicians to prescribe the drugs.



  • OPA Press Releases

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N.J. Electrical Company Employee Pleads Guilty to Defrauding the Environmental Protection Agency at Superfund Site

An employee of a Sewell, N.J., company that provided temporary electrical utilities pleaded guilty today to participating in a fraud conspiracy at an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-designated Superfund site in New Jersey.



  • OPA Press Releases

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N.J. Industrial Pipes Supply Company and Its Co-Owner Plead Guilty to Fraud at Two N.J. Superfund Sites

A Middlesex, N.J., industrial pipes, valves and fittings supply company and its co-owner pleaded guilty today to participating in a fraud conspiracy at two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-designated Superfund sites in New Jersey. The sites are Federal Creosote, located in Manville, N.J., and Diamond Alkali, located in Newark, N.J.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Justice Department Settles Lawsuit Against Stimson Lumber Company to Enforce the Employment Rights of Oregon Reservist

The Department announced today that it has entered into a consent decree with Stimson Lumber Company (Stimson) that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint, also filed today, that Oregon-based Stimson failed to reemploy Oregon reservist David Eckhardt in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).



  • OPA Press Releases

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Former U.S. Tax Court Official Sentenced for Engaging in a Conspiracy to Commit Bribery

A former official of the U.S. Tax Court was sentenced today in connection with a bribery conspiracy involving contracts at the U.S. Tax Court in the District of Columbia. Fred Fernando Timbol Jr., 43, of Mount Airy, Md., was sentenced by Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release.



  • OPA Press Releases

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United States Joins Suit Against Community Health Systems Inc. and Three of Its Hospitals in New Mexico

The United States has intervened in a whistleblower suit filed in the District of New Mexico against Community Health Systems Inc. (CHS) and three of its hospitals in New Mexico: Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in Roswell, Mimbres Memorial Hospital in Deming, and Alta Vista Regional Hospital in Las Vegas. The suit alleges that CHS and its three hospitals violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by knowingly causing to be presented to the United States false claims for federal matching Medicaid funds.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Two Indicted for Conspiring to Steal Trade Secrets from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company

An indictment was unsealed today charging Clark Alan Roberts, 46, and Sean Edward Howley, 38, both engineers with Wyko Tire Technology Inc., located in Greenback, Tenn., with conspiring to steal trade secrets from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and scheming to defraud Goodyear of confidential and proprietary information.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Former Congressional Staffer Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Honest Services Fraud

A former congressional staffer pleaded guilty today to conspiring with others to commit honest services fraud. Ann Copland, 52, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts in the District of Columbia.



  • OPA Press Releases

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U.S. Department of Justice Promotes International Network to Combat Intellectual Property Crime

Building upon the successes of earlier efforts, the Department today announced the opening in Bangkok of a regional conference of approximately 100 key law enforcement and industry officials from more than a dozen nations with the goal of strengthening international cooperation in fighting large-scale intellectual property crimes.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Attorney Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud

A securities attorney pleaded guilty today to defrauding investors in stock manipulation schemes involving 19 different publicly traded companies. David B. Stocker, 49, of Phoenix pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for his participation in a stock manipulation conspiracy known as a “pump-and-dump” scheme.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Director of Singapore Firm Pleads Guilty to Illegally Exporting Controlled Aircraft Components to Iran

Laura Wang-Woodford, a U.S. citizen who served as a director of Monarch Aviation Pte, Ltd. (“Monarch”), a Singapore company that imported and exported military and commercial aircraft components for more than 20 years, pled guilty today in federal court in Brooklyn to conspiring to violate the U.S. trade embargo by exporting controlled aircraft components to Iran.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Iranian Man and His Company Charged in International Scheme to Supply Iran with Sensitive U.S. Technology

An Iranian citizen and his Tehran business have been charged with purchasing helicopter engines and advanced aerial cameras for fighter bombers from U.S. firms and illegally exporting them to Iran using companies in Malaysia, Ireland and the Netherlands. Among the alleged recipients of these U.S. goods was an Iranian military firm that has since been designated by the United States for being owned or controlled by entities involved in Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Sixth Aegis Company Principal Sentenced in Chicago to Ten Years in Prison for His Part in Firm’s $60 Million Tax Fraud Conspiracy

Edward B. Bartoli, a Clearwater, Fla., resident and former attorney, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle of Chicago. Bartoli is the last of six defendants to be sentenced after they were convicted of various tax crimes in May 2008. Prior to his conviction, Bartoli was a founder of Aegis and its legal director.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Fact Sheet: Department of Justice Efforts to Combat Mexican Drug Cartels

The increased efforts and reallocation of personnel recently announced by the Department of Justice builds on the foundation of expertise and experience gained from ongoing efforts to combat Mexican drug cartels in the United States and to help Mexican law enforcement battle cartels in its own country.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Mexican Man Sentenced to 24 Years for Sex Trafficking of Minors and Transportation for the Purpose of Commercial Sex

Jorge Flores-Rojas, 44, an undocumented Mexican national, was sentenced to 24 years in prison by Chief Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr. in Charlotte, N.C., for two counts of sex trafficking of minors and one count of interstate transportation of an adult for purposes of commercial sex. Flores-Rojas pled guilty to the charges on Oct. 7, 2008.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Six Former Executives of California Valve Company Charged in $46 Million Foreign Bribery Conspiracy

Six former executives of an Orange County, Calif.-based valve company were charged today in connection with a conspiracy to secure contracts by paying bribes to officials of foreign state-owned companies as well as officers and employees of foreign and domestic private companies. The contracts resulted in net profits to the company of approximately $46.5 million. According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly engaged in a bribery conspiracy from approximately 1998 through 2007.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Three International Airline Companies Agree to Plead Guilty to Price Fixing on Air Cargo Shipments

Three international airline companies—Luxembourg-based Cargolux Airlines International S.A., Japan-based Nippon Cargo Airlines Co. Ltd. (NCA), and Korea-based Asiana Airlines Inc.—have each agreed to plead guilty and pay criminal fines totaling $214 million for conspiring to fix prices in the air cargo industry. In addition, Asiana was charged with fixing the passenger fares charged on flights from the United States to Korea.



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Two More Commercial Fisherman Plead Guilty to Illegal Harvesting of Rockfish

Two commercial fisherman pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., to violations of the Lacey Act, the federal law that prohibits individuals from transporting, selling or buying illegally harvested fish, in this case striped bass or rockfish.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Justice Department Resolves Lawsuit Alleging Disability-Based Housing Discrimination at 12 Multifamily Housing Complexes in Louisville, Kentucky

The Department announced that a federal district court judge in Louisville, Ky., approved a settlement of the Department’s lawsuit alleging that those involved in the design and construction of 12 multifamily housing complexes discriminated on the basis of disability. The complexes contain more than 800 units covered by the Fair Housing Act’s accessibility provisions.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Oil Company and Two Executives Plead Guilty to Environmental Crimes

Texas Oil and Gathering Inc., its owner John Kessel and its operations manager Edgar Pettijohn pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Houston to criminal violations related to the disposal of refinery wastes at an underground injection well in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Counterfeit Computer Software Worth $1 Million

A Virginia man pleaded guilty today to selling counterfeit computer software on eBay in violation of criminal copyright infringement laws, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor for the District of Columbia.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Subsidiaries of Swedish Company, Trelleborg AB, Agree to Plead Guilty and Pay $11 Million in Criminal Fines

Two subsidiaries of the Swedish company Trelleborg AB, one based in Virginia and the other in France, have agreed to plead guilty and pay a total of $11 million in criminal fines for their participation in separate conspiracies affecting the sales of marine products sold in the United States and elsewhere.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Former Military Official Pleads Guilty to Participating in Bribery Conspiracy Involving $206 Million Telecommunications Contract in Korea

A former Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) official pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ga., for his role in a conspiracy to commit bribery involving a multimillion dollar telecommunications contract, and for not reporting the bribes he accepted on his income tax returns.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Illinois Refuse Container Repair Company Executives Indicted in Conspiracy to Defraud the City of Chicago

A Chicago grand jury indicted the president and vice president of an Illinois refuse disposal container repair company for engaging in a conspiracy and scheme to defraud the city of Chicago on a contract for the repair of refuse carts. This is the first case to be brought in the Department’s ongoing antitrust investigation into the refuse cart repair industry.



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Maryland Commercial Fisherman Sentenced to Prison for Illegal Harvesting of Rockfish

Thomas L. Hallock, a commercial fisherman licensed in Maryland, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., to 12 months in prison, for illegally overfishing striped bass also known as rockfish. He was also fined $4,000 and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $40,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to the benefit of the Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass Restoration Account.



  • OPA Press Releases

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Owner of Korean Commercial Cargo Vessel & Chief Engineer Plead Guilty to Marine Pollution Related Charges

STX Pan Ocean Co. Ltd. (STX), headquartered in Seoul, Korea, and the owner of the commercial cargo ship, M/V Ocean Jade, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy as well as falsifying and failing to properly maintain records meant to ensure compliance with maritime pollution laws. The chief engineer of the M/V Ocean Jade, Hong Hak Kang, a Korean citizen, also pleaded guilty today to failing to maintain environmental records and making false statements.



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Former Head Securities Trader for Lancer Group Hedge Funds Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Mail, Wire and Securities Fraud

The former head securities trader for Lancer Group hedge funds pleaded guilty on April 28, 2009, to one count of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud. Eric Hauser, 65, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Adalberto Jordan in Miami. Hauser admitted to participating in a scheme to manipulate trading of stocks owned by the Lancer Group hedge funds.



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Justice Department Sues Nobel Learning Communities Inc. for Discrimination Against Children with Disabilities

The Department has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against Nobel Learning Communities Inc. (Nobel) alleging the company violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act by excluding children with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities from its schools and programs.



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More Commercial Fishermen Sentenced for Illegal Harvesting of Rockfish

Three more commercial fishermen were sentenced this week in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., for illegally harvesting and under-reporting their catch of striped bass, also known as rockfish. The sentencings are part of the on-going prosecution of individuals and wholesalers who have participated in a black market to overfish and under-report rockfish catch from the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding waterways, which is the largest spawning ground for striped bass on the East Coast.



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Justice Department Obtains $200,000 in Housing Discrimination Settlement with Lakewood, New Jersey, Apartment Complex

The Department announced an agreement with the owners, a manager and a former manager of Cottage Manor Apartments in Lakewood, N.J., to settle allegations of discrimination on the basis of religion, national origin and race.



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